Ron Paul Asks: Will The Government Assassinate Journalists Next?

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas at the National Press Club in Washington today.

Patrick Smith
/ Getty Images

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was quick last Friday to condemn the killing of American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

"If the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it's sad," Paul said.

Today at the National Press club in Washington Paul repeated that he thinks the presidentially approved killing of an American citizen is an impeachable offense and said the nation could be "slipping and sliding" toward more targeted assassinations.

"They won't even tell us what the rules are," Paul said, other that to say al-Awlaki was "a threat."

"Can you imagine being put on a list because you're a threat?" the GOP presidential contender asked. "What's going to happen when they come to the media? What if the media becomes a threat? Or a professor becomes a threat? Someday that could well happen. This is the way it works. It's incrementalism. ... It's slipping and sliding, let me tell 'ya."